News
Studio in Quake-Affected Miyagi Makes TV Anime Short
posted on by Egan Loo
Asahi Production's spinoff studio in Miyagi, one of the prefectures hardest hit by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster, has animated a earthquake-themed television short that will run on March 21. "Neko no Sumu Shima" (The Island Where Cats Live) is set in Ishinomaki, a city known for the Shōtarō Ishinomori Manga Museum before the earthquake.
In particular, Tashirojima is a real-life local island nicknamed "Cat Island" for the countless felines who lived carefree lives there before the earthquake. The story follows kittens who get separated from their loved ones amid the devastation and falling snow, and they struggle to find and reconnect with each other.
Asahi Production, the Tokyo-based anime studio best known for Hello Kitty, had just established the spinoff studio in Miyagi's Shiroishi City in April of 2010 to create employment opportunities for young people, and to promote anime in the prefecture. Less than a year later, the disaster hit Shiroishi along with the rest of eastern Japan. With Hideaki Oba (Alice in the Country of Hearts: Wonderful Wonder World, Pandalian) directing, the studio decided to create a story to depict life after the earthquake.
The short premiered in a screening at Ishinomaki itself on March 18, and the short will then run on the satellite and cable channel BS Fuji at 11:55 p.m. on March 21.
Source: animeanime.jp
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